I think that accurately summarizes the concrete things, but misses a mood.
The missing mood is less about “grappling with the enormity of it”, and more about “grappling with the effort of it” or “accepting the need to struggle for real”. Like, in terms of time spent, we’re talking maybe a year or two of full-time effort, spread out across maybe 3-5 years. That’s far more than the post grapples with, but not prohibitively enormous; it’s comparable to getting a degree. The missing mood is more about “yup, it’s gonna be hard, and I’m gonna have to buckle down and do the hard thing for reals, not try to avoid it”. The technical knowledge is part of that—like, “yup, I’m gonna have to actually for-reals learn some gnarly technical stuff, not try to avoid it”. But not just the technical study. For instance, actually for-reals noticing and admitting when I’m avoiding unpleasant truths, or when my plans won’t work and I need to change tack, has a similar feel: “yup, my plans are actually for-reals trash, I need to actually for-reals update, and I don’t yet have any idea what to do instead, and it looks hard”.
I think that accurately summarizes the concrete things, but misses a mood.
The missing mood is less about “grappling with the enormity of it”, and more about “grappling with the effort of it” or “accepting the need to struggle for real”. Like, in terms of time spent, we’re talking maybe a year or two of full-time effort, spread out across maybe 3-5 years. That’s far more than the post grapples with, but not prohibitively enormous; it’s comparable to getting a degree. The missing mood is more about “yup, it’s gonna be hard, and I’m gonna have to buckle down and do the hard thing for reals, not try to avoid it”. The technical knowledge is part of that—like, “yup, I’m gonna have to actually for-reals learn some gnarly technical stuff, not try to avoid it”. But not just the technical study. For instance, actually for-reals noticing and admitting when I’m avoiding unpleasant truths, or when my plans won’t work and I need to change tack, has a similar feel: “yup, my plans are actually for-reals trash, I need to actually for-reals update, and I don’t yet have any idea what to do instead, and it looks hard”.